Bouncing around the Amazon room before the big day:

Well-known pro doesn't always equate well-funded pro as the case of Jean-Robert Bellande. His final table for Event #53's $1,500 Limit Hold Em' shootout and 2nd place finish for $173,564 might only net him a couple of Krispy Kreme dounts from the poker kitchen at the Rio. The folks at Pokerati found this thread on 2+2 about some fellow mid-high stakes player who have seen Bellande's constant need for staking, including this tourney by Full Tilt pro Greg FBT Muller.

Dr. Pauly is gearing up for Day One of the $10,000 No Limit Hold Em' Main Event today. Will we see the grandfather of poker blogs, Iggy gracing the Amazon room floor after winning his seat on Stars? Let's wish him a collective good luck!!

Ante Up for Africa kicked off yesterday with a multitude of stars ranging from sports to film. The Not on our Watch foundation will reap the rewards of this $5,000 charity tournament to help stem Darfur's long suffering. For the scoop on this event, check out the PokerStarsBlog for details and links to NOOW on how you can make a donation.

Well known poker pro John Bonetti recently passed away at the age of 80. Its tough to come up with nice things to say about a person who was anything but to his fellow players, but even worst towards dealers. Away from the lights, Bonetti was known to the dealers as one of the worse abusers of the men and women who manned the sliver trays. As a recent article from Poker-pro.net (and many others) spell out how his crassness spread also to other players:

While Bonetti is truly a of poker legend unfortunately he was not well liked by players who knew him only at the tables, where he was infamous for dealer abuse, brash table antics and an otherwise miserable persona. Those who knew him outside poker will describe him differently. In a CardPlayer.com article released today his good friend Phil Hellmuth mention Bonetti as having a Heart of Gold, and regarding his actions at the table Hellmuth says "He wanted to win more than you did, period".

With three bracelets and more then a handful of WSOP cashes, Bonetti's stats will show a poker star dimming light, but it is difficult to shine a light on a person who actually received cheers upon his death by the very people who toss those winning cards to him.

Pokerstars is going the way of Spearmint Gum and doubling your pleasures at the poker tables. Starting today, they are offering a shot to get your VIP status kick started towards a new high with double VPPs (1,500 for SilverStar, 4,000 for GoldStar, 10,000 for PlantiumStar every month). The daily VPP doubler is good on all ring games and sit and go's (except heads up) and could get you closer to that iPod from the their VIP store.

Here's a slice of the announcement from PokerStars (click here for the promotion page) :

PokerStars is the world's best poker site, so it's only right that we give you the best rewards and promotions! This month you can get twice as much as before with PokerStars 2X - this is what happens when the biggest poker site in the world gets even bigger! And because we're rolling the promotion out across many different events, everyone can get in on the deal.

All you need to do is keep playing in our regular tournaments and cash games to be in with a chance of winning big. We'll only be announcing each event just before it starts, but you can expect everything from double VPPs, double the chances to win and even double the size of the pot in our cash games!

We'll be keeping you up to date with the latest 2X events through the PokerStars game lobby. Alternatively, bookmark this page and keep checking back for the latest news. You don't want to miss out on what's happening in the biggest online poker promotion of all time!

image from Pokernews.com

What will hold more prestige in poker's hierarchy: Winning the World Series of Poker Main Event or the winner of the current event #45's $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E tourney?

If you were to poll random people the answer would be the main event of course, since weaving through a 5,000+ player minefield of pros and amateurs alike over the course of a week is a test of endurance. But, the HORSE tourney comprises of the best of the best, willingly putting up a yearly salary of the average American worker to play cards for five days in search of the ultimate respect among pros.

Today we're down to 24 left with name pros dotting the leaderboard playing towards the near $2 million payday. You may recognize some of the names: Negreanu, Brunson, and Scotty Nguyen make up some of the top ten while Michael DeMichele is enjoying a slight chip lead over Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu and Barry Greenstein going into day four and the money bubble. Head over to Pokernews.com for the live reporting and recap here of the journey from 67 to three tables left.

pic from Diamond's Sports Bar website

When you play online poker, there are many strange calls and raises you may see at the tables, regardless of the limits you play at. But, the online player eventually will step away from the laptop/keyboard and try their chops at the local casino or cardroom. A good (depending who you speak with) middle is the bar poker scene. After a softball tourney today (I went 9 for 13 in three games, thank you for asking) there was a game being set up inside the bar portion of Diamonds Sports Bar and Grill for a little hold em' action.

Being a poker blogger and having no responsibilities this afternoon I said "why not!". Five tables of ten players with 1,000 starting chips quickly found their seats and proceeded to play towards the $70 first prize, $30 second place, and $15 gift certificate for third. Not a bad deal for a zero dollar buy in and drink specials. The poker is step below what you would find at a nickel/dime blind table online, but the just the chatter is worth much more then any dollar amount. Of course I am copping out since my bluff on a coordinated board with nothing more then an open ended straight draw that didn't get there was called down by a lowly pair.

Note to future bar poker converts from online: stick with ABC poker, hold on to your cup for the K4s call all-in versus your aces, it happens.

After Updates from the greatest show on green felt with advertisements, the World Series of Poker! Let's bounce around the interwebs for the latest bracelet holders and those who can finally pay their backers back:

The big $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tourneys is on to Day 2 and finds World Poker Tour founder Lyle Berman going into Day 3 with the chip lead. 148 players relieved themselves of the sizable buy-in and 140 made it to Day 2, but only 67 of them will be returning for Day 3. Catch the write up of Day 2's big news at Pokernews.com from John "Falstaff" Hartness.

In my favorite form of poker, Event #43 Pot Limit Omaha Eight-or-Better, Martin Klaser outlasted Casey Kastle for the bracelet and $216,249. Eight-time WSOP champ Erik Seidel finished fourth in a quest of a ninth bracelet. Get the full scoop at Pokerlistings.com live-updates page on any tourney currently running.